A flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv narrowly avoided disaster after one of its pilots allegedly tried to stab his colleague, sending the aircraft into a steep plunge before it made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
The sequence of events was outlined in a video message by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the co-pilot who allegedly stabbed the pilot had intended to crash the aircraft.
The intervention by the passengers and crew likely helped avert a disaster. Netanyahu. Netanyahu wrote.
Netanyahu said at a briefing on Wednesday (September 30, 2026). Flight FZ1073 first transmitted the general emergency code 7700 before switching to 7500, a code indicating unlawful interference and a possible hijacking, according to flight-tracking website Flightradar . The aircraft later switched back to 7700, the service said.
“They prevented a huge disaster,” Mr. The pilot who was stabbed was identified as an Indian national, Smit Machchhar , according to a post on X by Mr. “My salute to the Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar for his extraordinary bravery,” Mr. “Despite being stabbed and seriously injured, he fought back, resisted, opened the cockpit door, and enabled passengers and crew to overpower the attacker, preventing a catastrophic mid-air disaster,” he further said. Meanwhile, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed Captain Machchhar as a “hero” for fighting off the co-pilot, who allegedly attempted to crash the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight. He said the country was proud of the pilot’s courage in helping save hundreds of lives and averting a major tragedy. “It seems as though the co-pilot was perhaps a terrorist or perhaps a whack job, and he stabbed the pilot,” the U.S. President said. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the incident aboard the aircraft “was a jihadist terrorist attack attempt, which was thwarted only thanks to the bravery of several Israeli passengers who broke into the cockpit and overpowered the terrorist”.
